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NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) - The luxury car market is apparently taking some hits from higher gasoline prices, according to a published report.

USA Today reports that data from Power Information Network (PIN) shows an increasing number of owners of top-of-the-line luxury car models are trading in for either entry-level luxury vehicles or even switching to non-luxury brands.

And the paper reports while luxury brand sales are still up on the year, that is being lifted by the improved sales of smaller models, with the top-end vehicles seeing sales off 10.6 percent in October, according to auto sales tracker Autodata.

"There is definitely a movement downward," Tom Libby, senior director of industry analysis at PIN, told the paper. "Everyone has been talking about the decline in big SUVs, but no one has really talked about this similar movement away from large luxury cars."

The luxury brands had been seen as more protected from gasoline sticker shock because even with the rise in fuel costs, the increased outlay was relatively small compared to car payments. But average large luxury car buyer is in their late 60s, according to Art Spinella, president of CNW Marketing Research, and those buyers are on a fixed income, even if it is a high income.

While the average price of regular unleaded has retreated from its post-Hurricane Katrina highs, the average price of gas is still about 14 percent above year-ago levels, AAA says. And premium unleaded used by some luxury vehicles is averaging $2.43 a gallon, compared to $2.21 a gallon for regular unleaded, according to the latest AAA survey.

Allen Reeves, a retiree from Franklin, Tenn., told the paper he is considering getting rid of his 1998 Lincoln Mark VII.

"It uses premium so the prices hit me pretty hard," he said.

But Paige Meade, an accounts manager from Clifton, Va., told the paper she has no intention of ditching the three luxury vehicles her family owns.

"We're just bracing ourselves and cutting back in other ways," she said.

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